Product Description
1917. As a war raged across the world, young American women flocked to work, painting watches, clocks and military dials with a special luminous substance made from radium. It was a fun job, lucrative and glamorous—the girls themselves shone brightly in the dark, covered head to toe in the dust from the paint. They were the radium girls.
As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive—their work—was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering—in the face of death—these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
Drawing on previously unpublished sources—including diaries, letters, and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women's relatives—The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.
As the years passed, the women began to suffer from mysterious and crippling illnesses. The very thing that had made them feel alive—their work—was in fact slowly killing them: they had been poisoned by the radium paint. Yet their employers denied all responsibility. And so, in the face of unimaginable suffering—in the face of death—these courageous women refused to accept their fate quietly, and instead became determined to fight for justice.
Drawing on previously unpublished sources—including diaries, letters, and court transcripts, as well as original interviews with the women's relatives—The Radium Girls is an intimate narrative account of an unforgettable true story. It is the powerful tale of a group of ordinary women from the Roaring Twenties, who themselves learned how to roar.
Reviews/Praise
"Professional actor and narrator Angela Brazil has much sympathy and admiration in her excellent reading for the 'shining women' and all the other heros interviewed by the author.” —Sound Commentary
"Narrator Angela Brazil has a lively, clear voice, excellent diction, and a great sense of pacing." —AudioFile
"Kate Moore's The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women receives a fine narration by Angela Brazil as it reveals the history young American women hired to paint luminous clock and military dials with radium in 1917." —Donovan's Literary Services
"This timely book celebrates the strength of a group of women, whose determination to fight improved both labor laws and scientific knowledge of radium poisoning. Written in a highly readable, narrative style, Moore's chronicle of these inspirational women's lives is sure to provoke discussion-and outrage-in book groups." —Booklist Starred Review
"Moore's well-researched narrative is written with clarity and a sympathetic voice that brings these figures and their struggles to life . . . a must-read for anyone interested in American and women's history, as well as topics of law, health, and industrial safety." —Library Journal Starred Review
"Carefully researched, the work will stun readers with its descriptions of the glittering artisans who, oblivious to health dangers, twirled camel-hair brushes to fine points using their mouths, a technique called lip-pointing . . . Moore details what was a 'ground-breaking, law-changing, and life-saving accomplishment' for worker's rights." —Publishers Weekly